Epilogue: The Gospel According to No One
Months passed.
The media storm died down.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa5kD6onkZG
The protests scattered.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBL69wnwEwE
The Vatican released a vague statement—“We grieve. We investigate. We pray.”
And yet, the school still stood.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRcWXqyLC1G
The priests still presided.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMq2ttqjubo
The names of the guilty… were never mentioned.
But something had shifted.
In small parishes, whispers grew louder.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyylvMSBqnU
In quiet dorms, students asked harder questions.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNBI99eNXQF
In remote seminaries, boys started to write… to each other… and then to her.
Ella received letters now.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡklDxgC37Ad
Not hate mail. Not just.
Some were from victims who had never spoken.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbQAuAplKn
Some from young priests who had witnessed too much.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdHcEORcUfY
Some from nuns. From teachers. From guards. From altar servers.
“I thought I imagined it too.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnSXkk5BJ1
“I was too afraid to speak. Thank you for being louder than my fear.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgLExWJxEMd
“He’s still there. And I’m still serving under him.”
She didn't have all the answers.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjQAyKI6IAU
She was not a saint.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcIQnOdpNUp
And she never pretended to be.
Sometimes she still woke up with phantom hands on her body.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyMK3X7rLk7
Sometimes, when Clark kissed her shoulder, she’d flinch, then apologize, then cry.
Sometimes she wondered what her life would have been if she had just stayed quiet.
But most nights, she wrote back.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf8NVsVfg3H
To every letter.
With her truth.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2b6pSquOSD
With Ely’s files.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3hGTmT6TS
With the names she refused to let history forget.
One night, a girl from Cagayan emailed her.
“He tells us obedience is holiness. He makes us kneel when he speaks. I’m scared.”
Ella didn’t just reply. She got in a car with Clark, printed the files, and went north.
They never stopped them all.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkLH5TbqOxQ
They never burned the Church down.
But they burned the lie that faith should mean silence.
And that was enough for now.
FINAL NOTE (in Ella's words):
ns216.73.216.238da2This story was never written to destroy faith.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsTZx9JF284
It was written to destroy the illusion that faith makes people untouchable.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqkVocbdmoY
There are good priests. I have loved one. I have fought beside another.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2y5QH7VpDD
But holiness should never be a disguise for harm.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTLetEhJXam
If my voice shakes the pulpit, then maybe the pulpit was never built on rock to begin with.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrH3LEpFjO
Amen.
